“I look at it everyday and I think quite often what a waste it is to have it closed,” he said.

“I’m surprised they didn’t open it up when they put the lights in.

“I can understand the people up the street would end up with more traffic, but people have got to share these things.”

Mr Saddler said something had to be done to fix the bottleneck at Gardiner Road.

But BSC Motion Technology’s Simon Kerwick said reopening the road would not make a difference to Peisley Street’s congestion and could even make it worse.

“It will probably hold it up more because you’d have to wait for the cars to turn right out of Franklin Road,” he said.

LJ Imaging owner Leiarna Dunworth was also unsure whether reopening the road would be for the better.

“I love the intersection from a business point of view because everyone stops and looks at the shop,” she said.

“It depends on what they do.”

She suggested removing on-street parking along Peisley Street could create more lanes and improve traffic flow.

Cr Reg Kidd said the Peisley Street intersections with Franklin Road and Gardiner Road should be treated as a package and asked for the closure of Franklin Road to be reviewed by the council’s traffic committee.

“It was closed for a different reason when there was no traffic lights,” he said.

“If it was safe you could come over the railway line and it would add the option of going straight ahead.

“It would certainly help a lot of congestion if you’re coming back on to Peisley Street.”

But Cr Gander said making Franklin Road a through road would cause “major problems” at the Lords Place intersection.

“It would create a dangerous situation with cars going straight through whereas if we can speed up traffic at Gardiner Road it would improve things dramatically,” he said.